Beyond the Moon

Sometime earlier today, weather permitting, a modified version of India’s main Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle should have lifted off from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. Atop its nosecone it will be ferrying a 575 kg spacecraft called Chandrayaan-1 which, if all goes well, will ultimately orbit the Moon for a period of about two years. During that time it will also release a smaller impact probe to slam into the lunar surface to help explore it from close range. But why on earth are we going to the Moon at all, and that too at a cost of nearly Rs 400 crore? Surely there are other pressing priorities back home like poverty, literacy, medical care, infrastructure development etc that need urgent attention and the taxpayers’ money. Besides, why are we doing this now when others have done it several decades ago? The former Soviet Union and the United States both launched successful lunar orbiting satellites way back in 1966. We’re told that, among other things, the mission will try to source non-radioactive Helium-3 which is scarce on Earth but believed to be abundant on its natural satellite and is seen as a promising fuel for advanced fusion reactors in the future. Once located, we can transport it back from the moon to run nuclear plants and generate abundant electricity. Apparently, a couple of tonnes of Helium-3 are enough to meet the energy needs of the world. So how come other advanced nations of the world haven’t thought along similar lines? They also tell us Chandrayaan will pave the way for future manned missions to the Moon. But the Americans have already been there and done that nine times with a flurry of 27 astronauts between 1968 and 1972 and haven’t gone back since. The Russians, despite their awesome expertise in space travel, haven’t done it at all. Obviously it’s either not that important or no big deal. Or are we missing something here? We are. It’s the bigger picture which ultimately involves the colonisation of Moon and Mars. Most everything else about Chandrayaan — whether it’s a show of strength to demonstrate that what China does we can too, or to develop terrestrial military missile options, or benefit from technology spin-offs and generate more jobs and get young people interested in such science — is, at best, unenduring. Even the national pride associated with becoming a full member of an elite club of super space powers, thus announcing India’s place in the world, is an ephemeral phenomenon. Earlier this year, the renowned Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking had seen this same picture when he called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars. “If the human race is to continue for another million years”, he said, “we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Of course, he also saw it as an insurance policy against the possibility of human beings being wiped out by catastrophes like nuclear war and climate change. Ever since humans came out of Africa, exploration has always been in their blood. Yesterday it was the New World, today it’s Antarctica, tomorrow the solar system. This is the real reason why, after the famously fought face-saving “me first” duel to go to the Moon in the 1960s, the two original space-faring countries ducked the effort completely. Instead, what the Russians — and later the Americans — concentrated on quietly for long decades was in putting its astronauts for longer and longer periods on the orbiting Mir space station and the International Space Station (ISS). They wanted to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body. The information is vital for making long duration journeys to, say, Mars which can last anything from six to nine months one way. In fact, besides serving as a research facility, the whole idea of building space stations is also for furthering lunar and other interplanetary voyage options. According to NASA the ISS has a key role to play as it moves forward with a new focus for its manned space programme, which is to go out beyond the Earth orbit. The ISS is now a stepping stone. The crews will not only continue to learn how to live and work in space but also how to build hardware that can survive and function for the years required to make the round-trip voyage from Earth to Mars. Is it any surprise then that China too plans on building one in the future? Or that after Chandrayaan-2, which is scheduled for some time between 2010 and 2012, and a manned mission to the Moon, ISRO has Mars in its sights? Last year, the principal scientific investigator to the Chandrayaan mission, J N Goswami, said that scientists had indeed begun studies about a mission to Mars. And K Kasturirangan, former ISRO chief, has stated that a mission to Mars by India is a logical extension to the moon flight. That’s why Chandrayaan-1 should be heading for the Moon today — because it’s only a matter of time before humanity starts moving out from Earth. Therefore, it’s good the country is considering at least some of its priorities to be in outer space too. It shows that, in the future, India can also be an enduring part of that outward movement.